The apparatus of the present invention is commonly referred to as a "fluxer." In this type of apparatus, a sample is heated to a molten state in a crucible and is then either poured into a casting dish to prepare a solid glass-like disc for analysis by instrumental techniques or the heated sample is poured into an acid solution contained in a beaker for analysis. Some of the devices known in the past would add materials to the crucibles while the crucibles were above and being heated by the burners. Also, the molten contents of the crucible was poured into a casting dish above the burner, the burner being used to heat the crucible and the casting dish. A fluxer usually contained several burners and facilitates for supporting several crucibles. If the apparatus was prepared to add a wetting agent to the molten sample in the crucible, and a crucible was not in place, the wetting agent could be dumped directly into the burner. Likewise, if the laboratory technician forgot to install a casting dish into the apparatus and the apparatus dumped the contents of the crucible into the absent casting dish, the contents would be poured into the burner. In either case, the burner would be seriously damaged or totally destroyed by the molten material.
It is also known in the operation of a fluxer that the crucible should be agitated vigorously in order to properly mix the molten sample in the crucible. Various complicated mechanical arrangements have been provided for moving the crucible while it is being heated and, in some cases, a shaped crucible was used to cause the material to separate and remix as it was poured from one side of the crucible bottom to the other.
In order to form a solid sample suitable for X-ray or other analytical techniques, it was necessary to heat the casting dish to a high enough temperature, preferably to the melting range of the sample, so that the sample could be poured from the crucible into the casting dish without undergoing thermal shock. The casting dishes were usually heated by gas burners which added a substantial amount of heat and combustion products to the fluxer enclosure.
For wet chemical analysis, using an aqueous acid solution, it was the usual procedure to employ magnetic stirring with each beaker being driven by its own motor. The extensive wiring required for the separate stirring motor further added to the complexity and cost of the fluxer.